outward observances of piety should be in accordance with the public peace
and well-being, and should therefore be determined by the sovereign power
alone. (8) I speak here only of the outward observances of piety and the
external rites of religion, not of piety, itself, nor of the inward worship
of God, nor the means by which the mind is inwardly led to do homage to God
in singleness of heart.

(19:9) Inward worship of God and piety in itself are within the sphere of
everyone's private rights, and cannot be alienated (as I showed at the end
of Chapter VII.). (10) What I here mean by the kingdom of God is, I
think, sufficiently clear from what has been said in Chapter XIV.
(11) I there showed that a man best fulfils Gods law who worships Him,
according to His command, through acts of justice and charity; it follows,
therefore, that wherever justice and charity have the force of law and
ordinance, there is God's kingdom.

(19:12) I recognize no difference between the cases where God teaches and
commands the practice of justice and charity through our natural faculties,
and those where He makes special revelations; nor is the form of the
revelation of importance so long as such practice is revealed and becomes a
sovereign and supreme law to men. (13) If, therefore, I show that justice
and charity can only acquire the force of right and law through the rights
of rulers, I shall be able readily to arrive at the conclusion (seeing that
the rights of rulers are in the possession of the sovereign), that religion
can only acquire the force of right by means of those who have the right to
command, and that God only rules among men through the instrumentality of
earthly potentates. (14) It follows from what has been said, that the
practice of justice and charity only acquires the force of law through the
rights of the sovereign authority; for we showed in Chapter XVI. that in the
state of nature reason has no more rights than desire, but that men living